"Oh dear, what a delightful heap of skull grinding noise this ep is". That was my first thought when I started listening to this first effort by Australian extremists Miserist. Right after hearing the first two songs, I opened the digipac again and I read 'This horrendous collection of noise was composed, recorded, assembled, mastered...", which made me realize that "noise" is pretty much all this horde is going for. No that I mind.

What Miserist delivers is an explosive and destructive blend of industrial, black and death metal, driving on a thick guitar sound and heaps of aggression. In a way, you can easily place this ep among your expanding collection of avant-garde metal releases as pretty much nothing is conventional and familiar. Here and there some vintage death metal riffs can be found and there's a decent amount of blast beats present as well.

Yet, the whole thing sounds like a sanity-battering melee that only the most experience musical extremists can and will survive. 'Horror Infinitum' is probably my favorite track on this ep. It's also the most varied one, opening with classical music and ranging from harsh noise over sludge to death metal, without uttering a single word. The rest of the album will probably haunt your dreams for years.

The verdict? Well, this ep is a hard pill to swallow. It showcases a dark and burdensome atmosphere. Play it loud enough, and tracks like 'Miserist' and 'Lung Rust' become overwhelming and crushing pieces of music. My advice? Get experienced in the vile underground of the metal industry before you give this one a shot. It will definitely be worth it because in all, this album is a pulverising blast.